Week beginning 20th May 2013 showed promising conditions! The river came up on Sunday and dropped from 3'+ to 2' by Monday morning the river was at 55 degrees a record for the season! We definitely have been seeing more fish on the beat with some residents in Red Brae and occasional running pods of fish although we caught most of this weeks fish from an unusal place. 7 fish out of the total 10 were caught in the Boat Pool right down below the ash tree even at 1' on the gauge. Fish just seemed to be holding there and most visits to the spot would result in action! Other successful pools included Cobbles, Red Brae and the Haugh. All the fish were very fresh and some sea liced ranging from 8lb to 18lb. Mainly floating lines proved successful alternatively small flies on fest sinking line also accounted for some. The fishing is still far from its full potential but our first double figure fish week is a step in the right direction. A very enjoyable week with great weather and fishers! Once again small flies sizes 10 down and Munro Killers fishing being particularly good this week.

Ron Irvine's beauty from the Boat Pool

Wading deep into a fish

One that got away...

Julian Strutt with a cracking sea liced fish from Cobbles in the SNOW in May!!!

Monday 13th May began at 1'5 and continued to drop throughout the week finishing at 7", perfect fishing heights for the beat with a fairly cold river averaging 46 degrees peaking at 50 degrees by the end of the week. A total of 7 fish were landed with a few also lost. Logie produced the most fish for the week mainly from the Deecastle bank, although fish were few and far between and it proved to be a challenging week. With conditions ranging from hot sunny days to snow and hail showers it certainly didn't feel like the middle of May. David Conroy caught the first fish of the season from Ministers, and successful flies consisted of small silver stoats, cascades and crathes flys. Marcus Humphrey finished the week with a cracking sea liced fish from 29 which was the first of the season for that pool and he certainly deserved it!

A poor week compared to previous catches for the week but the rods fished hard and deserved every fish they got. We are hoping to see more fish soon and hopefully the pools may begin to hold some residents which may hold those runners back enough to catch a few more.

Monday, 13 May 2013

Monday the 6th of May we began the weeks fishing with the water temperature reaching 50 degrees most days with the river fairly high at 3' and dropping throughout the week we expected some great fishing. Weather conditions were great all week with warm days and mild winds we picked up a few fish at the beginning of the week and hooked up with a few more. Unfortunately there were still few fish running with small numbers being seen we finished with 4 springers for the week although another 5 were hooked and lost which was unfortunate! Mark Beaty caught the first fish of the season on a full floating line and Michael Harold had a cracking sea liced fish from Pol Bar. George Beaty also fished very hard all week and was finally rewarded on the final afternoon with a 9lber from the boat pool, well done! It's uncanny how the Dinnet and Deecastle figures are so close with only one fish difference between the banks.

Now we are into the middle of May and things should really begin to pick up and we shall soon see how late this years run may be. Successful tactics have been full floaters with short sink tips and size 8 or 10 black flies including the crathie, black and yellow, silver stoats, and small monkeys.

Now the river is down to 1' hopefully it will stay there and the floaters and small flies from 10's to 12's will be the main tactics.

Friday, 3 May 2013

Today we began with 1' of water good warm and wet conditions but still seeing few fish, as the rain set in it rose by 6" in the morning and by another 6" by 5 o'clock. Lets hope the rain will encourage the fish lower down to start entering the upper Dee. Cambus O May had another today so there is a sign of some fish sneaking through. Still fishing sink tips or int lines with medium sized tubes as its still a big ask to get fish up to wee flies in this cold water. We expect just under 3' in the morning and hope we catch a few from down in the boat pool.

Wednesday, 1 May 2013

The beat is at a great summer height at around 8" however we would like the water temperature at 50 by now as its still cold at 44. We have fished hard and seen few fish, though there was a fish landed at pol slacked today and a couple more seen below. Hopefully not long now and there will be plenty to go at!

On the other hand we are seeing our first smolts on the beat and there seem to plenty around!